The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that one of the key elements of the health care reform law commonly referred to as Obamacare, requiring employers with more than 50 full -time workers to provide health insurance or face government fines, will be delayed a year and not go into effect until 2015, according to the Chicago Tribune.
President Barack Obama appeared to be taking advantage of a slow news week where the majority of Washington is on vacation by quietly announcing the delay which will be viewed by some as raising questions about whether the reform law will be able to be enacted on time, or at all, reports the Chicago Tribune.
"We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy, wrote in a post on the U.S. Treasury's website. "We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so."
Randy Johnson, senior vice president of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits at the Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News that the decision to delay implementation was proof that the Obama administration was finally acknowledging reality.
"Employers need more time and clarification of the rules of the road before implementing the employer mandate," Johnson said. "We will continue to work to alleviate this and other problems with Obamacare."
Some pundits are seeing the reasons for the delay as being motivated more by politics than by need, if the law is not fully in effect by the midterm elections in 2014 it will take away a potential issue for Republicans to run on. Since the health care reform law was passed the House, led by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has attempted to repeal all of or portions of the law at least 35 times, according to Fox News.
"The president's health care law is already raising costs and costing jobs," Boehner said. "This announcement means even the Obama administration knows the 'train wreck' will only get worse. This is a clear acknowledgment that the law is unworkable, and it underscores the need to repeal the law and replace it with effective, patient-centered reforms."